Daijiworld Media Network - Shivamogga (SP)

Shivamogga, Sep 8: In a tragic incident which occurred at Hadonahalli village in the district on Wednesday September 7 afternoon, a raft in which the idol of Lord Ganapati was taken to the middle of River Tunga for immersing it, capsized all of a sudden. While about 12 persons swam to safety, the fate of 13 persons is unknown. The village is located about 23 km away from the city.

All the people in the boat were from Hadonahalli. So far the exact number of deaths and survivors has not been available although roughly the figure is given as 13 and 20. Although the villagers claim that 13 people met watery grave in the incident, divers could find only seven bodies till late evening. The operation will be continued today. Fire brigade personnel, divers from the area as well as boats from nearby villages were pressed into service, and they continued with the search operation. Senior officials from district administration, police department and taluk level officials rushed to the spot after coming to know about this tragedy.

The names of people who are supposed to have drowned in the incident are Manjunath, Veerabhadra, Jeevan, M S Ganesh, Shivakumar, Veeresh, Nayan, Sagar, Ramesh, Chandrappa, Shankar, Ganesh and Shivaraj.

The idols of Lord Ganesha and Goddess Gowri, which were installed on behalf of the residents of Hadonahalli for Gowri Habba and Ganesha Chaturthi, were planned to be discharged into river on Wednesday. The immersion procession, which began at around 11.30 am, went through streets of the village and reached the river at about 2.15 pm. Over 30 people were seated in the raft, which took the idol of Goddess Gowri, which was released into water in the middle of the river. The boat returned to the bank, picked up Lord Ganesha's idol, and immersed it too. When it was returning thereafter, the raft suddenly tilted heavily to one side and water began to gush inside. When people shifted their position to the other side, the raft again tilted and water began to enter. As more water came in, the raft faced the risk of drowning.

Some people then jumped out of the raft after growing panicky. Some others drowned along with the raft. People who knew how to swim reached the bank safely while a handful were saved by expert swimmers among them. It is said that some swimmers drowned as others caught hold of them in an effort to save their own lives. The person who was navigating the raft jumped into river and swam to the river bank, villagers said.